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entry Nov 2009 The Quisisana Palace in
Castellammare
Quisisana is now part of the town of
Castellammare di Stabia, at the beginning of the Sorrentine peninsula.
The name apparently derives from Qui-si-sana
(“Here you get healthy”), for here is where the Swabian dynasty, the
Hohenstaufens (Frederick II), way back
in the 1200s decided to build a royal residence on a hillside at about
400 feet above the sea so they could look out over the bay and get
healthy. The other story is that the residence was built by Robert of Anjou in 1310 after a miraculous
cure happened in the area. In any case—here is where you get well
again. Over the centuries there have been various
villas built on the grounds. In one form or another, they were a
popular stop for artists and writers (even Boccaccio set parts of his Decamerone here). In the 1500s the
property
came into possession of the Farnese family.
Elizabeth Farnese, the
Queen Consort of Spain was the mother of Charles
III
of
Bourbon, who then inherited the property. In the 1730s he became
the first king of Bourbon Naples. The villa was then remade into a
typically sumptuous Bourbon estate. The
recently restored building that you see today (photo, below) is that
Bourbon villa from the late 1700s. Thus, Quisisana was inhabited by
various members of the dynasties that
ruled the kingdom of Naples, right
up to when Giuseppe Garibaldi used the
Bourbon villa as a hospital for his men during his conquest of the
kingdom in
1861, leading to the unification of Italy. The property was appropriated by the new
Italian state and then sold to the town of Castellammare in 1879. The
premises were about 12 acres; they contained the two-story main mansion
with 100 rooms and typical royal trappings: workshops for making
candles and saddles, riding grounds, two stables, a farm house, a
church, various quarters for servants, and a five-acre park.
Quisisana is now restored, but to what end
nobody seems to know. Proposals have been made to turn it into (1) an
archaeological museum, or (2) a school for the restoration of art and
antiques, or (3) a deluxe hotel, or (4) a gambling casino. The point of
all these proposals is to help turn Castellammare around economically.
Compared to nearby Pompeii and Sorrento, the town of Castellammare has
never really been much of a tourist attraction to begin with. For
centuries, the
town worked for a living—the shipbuilder’s trade; the town was the site
of very successful shipyards for centuries. That trade, too, has fallen
upon hard times. Since the Royal Palace of Quisisana was
restored two years ago it has been the venue for occasional classical
music concerts, classes in art restoration and exhibits of some of the
considerable archaeological treasures in the area, but the premises are
really just sitting there, waiting for a decision. |
The “Royal
Palace at Quisisana” is practically unknown even to those who know the
area; yet it lays claim to being the first such royal residence in the
north of
the ancient Kingdom of Naples, older even than the 
Quisisana became
the Hotel Margherita in 1898, but remained little used for a number of
years. It was a hospital in WWI, converted to a luxury hotel in the
early 1930s, became a hospital again in WWII and was abandoned in the
1960s; the 1980 earthquake pretty much finished off what was left.
Plans for restoration were drawn up in 1994 and work started in 2002.